1900
• Oregon’s population is 413,536. Klamath County’s population is 3,970. There are about 500 farms in Klamath County.• February 20-27, a railroad survey finds no objections to a railroad right-of-way between Klamath Falls and Keno.• April 16 -23, a meteor impacted 15 miles from Klamath Falls. It lit up the southwest sky.• June, first ten-foot logging wheels in Oregon built for Thomas McCormack of Keno by Charles Woodard.• Mr. Duff’s steamboat excursion and basket picnic to Pelican Bay was scheduled for May, with the Klamath Falls brass band providing music.• Alexander Martin, his son A. Martin Jr. and E.R. Reames organized the Klamath County Bank which Alexander Martin was president.• First city fire bell in Klamath Falls.• Captain Oliver Applegate is appointed Superintendent of the Klamath Reservation, succeeding Major Emory, who is promoted to Inspector.• Mrs. Dan Griffith starts a summer resort,The Pioneer Guest House, on Odessa Creek.• 1900’s – Jesse Kirk was one of the first delegates to Washington D.C. before the 1900’s and a representative for the Klamath Reservation several years.• October 8, work on enlarging and extending an irrigation ditch from Upper Klamath Lake to run eastward several miles. The ditch is owned by Henry Ankeny and J.T. Henley. Construction of the ditch is encouraged by the certainty of the O.M Railroad.• October 15, E.E. Mead, who recently arrived from Crook County, buys Buck Island for horticulture and fruit raising.• October 15, J.L. Loosely and E. Harshberger tend to a beaver ranch at the Wood River.

1901
• Fred Moore organizes Moore’s Comedians, the first local drama company.• June, Doctors Hargus and Straw bring the first x-ray machine to Klamath Falls.• Robert Spink temorarily left Klamath Agency to open a new store in Yainax, the sub-agency 40 miles away on the Reservation. The building used as the old jail and he hired Frank Applegate as clerk and manager.• Mrs. Addie Clark wed H.J. O’Brien in Klamath County.• Medford, Jackson County, Oregon, is incorporated.

1902• Congress passes the US Bureau of Reclamation, established under Department of Interior, so that irrigation projects can “reclaim” arid lands for human use. This was called “homemaking.” “Water temporarily conservation” is defined as not allowing a drop of water to run, unused by humans, to the ocean. Over the next fifty years, dam building will fuel the economies and imaginations of Americans. These sublime marvels of human engineering symbolized American mastery over nature and manifest dominian over the West, and the world.• J.H. Hessig extends a telephone line to Topsy Grade from Picard, California.• Caleb T. Oliver organized the first county fair and races.•Marion Wampler and family arrive in Klamath Falls.• April 16, Odessa post office opens.• April 22, Crater Lake becomes a National Park. William F. Arant is the first superintendent.• A piano is moved from Ashland to Pelican Bay Resort.• August 2, Midway Telephone and Telegraph Company reaches Klamath Falls from Ashland.• George Baldwin is elected County Judge.• Earl Moore moved from Rogue River to Sprague.• Roy Hamacker bought the Weekly Express.• Klamath County’s first telephone line.• George Thompson elected County Judge.• Yainax Agency consisted of 25 dwellings: tepes, shacks and sod huts outside the Agency buildings’ perimeter.• Dr. Stacy Hemenway was resident physician at Klamath Reservation office at Klamath agency, making his rounds in horse and buggy. He was the last Doctor to serve the Yainax Agency.• October 13, Klamathon, Pokegama, was destroyed by fire including the sawmill, both box factories, eight million feet of Lumber and thirty homes.• The Woman’s library Club is formed and leads to the first free Klamath Falls library.

1903
• Klamath Lake Navigation Company forms.• January 8, a successful masquerade ball is held at the Huston Opera House.• March, first appropriation for local firemen’s uniforms.• March 29, Maude Baldwin’s photographic studio opens.• The town of Fort Klamath, platted by William T. Shrive, consists of a 5-6 bed hotel, livery stable, 2 general stores and a few shacks.• Merrill, Oregon was incorporated into Klamath County in 1903. A successful water well was drilled in 1905.• J.G. Swan is the first high school principal in Klamath Falls.• Dr. Hemenway wed a local woman, Irene Chitwood and had a drug store near Link River.• J.A. McIntire, manager of the Ashland to Klamath Falls Stage Line made arrangements with Klamath Lake Railroad to build a stage and livery barn east of Pokegama for passenger and mail service.• C.H. Withrow complies the first set of abstract books and plats of Klamath County.• G.W. White, the first president, and one of the First National Bank of Klamath Falls, were at Spring Creek’s Idlerest many times with his family of five daughters and two son, all from Klamath Falls.• May, Klamath Fall’s first baseball team.• Bureau of Reclamation sent John T. Whistler, Engineer of the Oregon District, to investigate the possibility of the Klamath area becoming the second federal reclamation project.• Large runs of salmon and trout appear in the headwaters of Upper Klamath Lake’s rivers and creeks.• Engineer Whistler found a long gradually sloping basin that on average dropped a foot in elevation every 1,000 feet. Upper Klamath Lake was at the northern end and two large shallow lakes, Lower Klamath and Tule Lake, were to the south. Water through the seasons advanced and receded between three basins and the Klamath River. The challenge for Reclamation would be to divert water from Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Lake to create productive farmland.• First notice of Klamath County potatoes in the San Francisco market.• Maude Baldwin opens a photographic studio, ” one of the town’s best enterprises.”• April 26, Wilson and Heidrich bought from S.T. Summers an elegant team of Sorrels to haul fright from surrounding towns.• May 1, first trip of the new railroad from Laird to Pokegama.• September, Ewuana, steamboat, carries passengers to Klamath Agency and duck hunting parties to Odessa.

1904
• Summer, John Totton and Harry Hansberry begin building the steamboat Winema in Klamath Falls. Another source says C.W. Walker began construction on the Winema in November.• January 1, S.S. Johnson tkes over operation of McCloud River Lumber Company as president and general manager.• Four steamboats are on Upper Klamath Lake.• Earl Moore, age nine, and three men climbed down to Crater Lake for a drink and climbed back via roped from the rock wall.• July, Reclamation began the process when investigations and surveys confirmed the Project’s feasibility. Basin residents petitioned the Secretary of Interior, “99% of the people are a unit, and are clamoring for the assistance which might be rendered by the Government under the Reclamation Act.”…”the Problem Was Getting Rid of Water – “ It contains an irrigation problem, an evaporation problem, a runoff problem, any one of which is difficult in itself but all of which together form a most perplexing whole. In nearly all reclamation projects water has to be conserved. In this project there is more than enough and the question of disposing of it becomes an import part…” Project engineer.• Warren Applegate was Indian Agency service painter for many years.• Mill built at Odessa and operates for several years.• Work begins on the Baldwin building, the largest in Klamath Falls.• First city owned rock crusher and street making equipment.• S.O. Johnson moves to the west coast.• E.H. Harriman’s wife and family come to Pelican Bay Lodge. a rifle range is established at the lower end of the meadow where the lady spent a great deal of time practicing shooting.. It is rumored that President Roosevelt’s wife and two small boys joined the Harriman family.

1905• The first accurate lake level surveys found Upper Klamath Lake 98 feet lower than the Ancient Modoc Lake highs. Lower Klamath lake was 156 feet lower and Tule Lake was 184 feet lower.• First Klamath Chamber of Commerce opens. It was preceded by two rival volunteer companies.• January 28, Steamboat Winema is launched at Klamath Falls, being 125′ x 25′ it will be the largest boat on the lake. The boat was christened by Mrs. Jennings. The Winema operates until 1919.• Approval of the Klamath Project requires Oregon and California, as well as private water rights holders, to relinquish those rights to the federal government, but not all are willing to sell. Owners of the Klamath Canal Company hold out for $200,000 for their rights. The dispute between the company and the Reclamation Service marks the first legal battle over who gets water and who doesn’t in the Klamath Basin. Reclamation agrees to pay Hawkins, Brown and Gold $150,000 for their rights and interest in the Klamath Canal Company. The Klamath project is the twelfth irrigation project authorized under the Reclamation Act of 1902.• Baldwin Hotel was built at 31 Main Street.• The Klamath Navigation Company builds the steamboat Klamath on Lake Ewauna to haul freight and passengers from Laird’s landing, Lower Klamath Lake, California to Klamath Falls, Oregon.• Robert Spink was chief clerk at Chemawa Indian Training School near salem, Oregon.• Local farmers unanimously supported the reclamation project and organized the original Klamath Water Users Association on March 4th. They told the government, “if you will be the plumber and the banker, we can do something good for the country.”• Brown trout are released in Crystal Creek.• April 6, the first timber sale of record is made to D.M. Griffith at Odessa.• Fred Goeller’s landmark three story home on Riverside Drive was completed.• April, the Medford and Crater Lake Railroad incorporates.• April 11, Fish Lake Water Company applies for a storage reservoir at Fourmile and Fish Lakes, with a connecting canal 18 ft. wide. 4 ft. deep and 36 miles in length.• April 30, Maiden voyage of Winema takes people to Odessa from Klamath Falls.• May. Agnes Steveson is the first female graduate of Klamath County High school.• Judge Henry Wilson, Chief of Pelican Bay Triblet, becomes agent for the Klamath Tribe.• Midway Telephone and Telegraph Company offers 24 hour telephone service in Klamath Falls.• James Hill of Great Northern announces his intentions of entering and developing Oregon railroads competing with E.H. Harriman.• Klamath Reclamation Project was approved on May 15th, 1905 and one million dollars was immediately allocated. Reclamation began to buy, and unify, private water projects into one master plan.• May, Steamboat Winema runs aground three miles up the Wood River. It takes “one hour less that three days to turn her around.”• Six rowboats are brought from Ashland to Pelican Bay.• Charles and William Worden along with A.H. Naftzer begin the Klamath Development Company, KDC.• June 1, Klamath Development Company buys the Hot Springs property in Klamath Falls.• E.H. Harriman purchases a railroad line projected by the Weed lumber Company from Weed, Ca to Klamath Falls, Or.• June 29, C.P Huntington follows the Hood Railroad survey through Klamath County to investigate the intended California Northeastern route. This is the Weed railroad route which travels up the west side of Upper Klamath Lake.• Doctor Hemenway disposed of drug store, sold home, to Claude Davis and moved back to Ashland.• Bureau of Reclamation does first soundings of Upper Klamath Lake. Soundings are too far apart and are useless.• November, Rangers Bill Nichols, Silas McKee and Henry ireland clean up old Kasson cabin and fence off 500 acres for pasture. this is the site of the present day Ranger Station on Westside Road in Rocky Point.• November 16, an edition of The Republic states, ” the steamer Winema will go to Bare Island for a coyote chase, bring dogs but no guns.”• Chamberlain is the first Oregon governor to visit Klamath Falls. He arrives via Pokegama to attend the irrigation ratification meeting.• Bureau of Reclamation begins to drain Lower Klamath Lake and create farmland.• September, Weyerhauser Company begins buying Klamath County timberland.

1906• Excavation begins on the “Keno Reef”, a natural dam spanning the Klamath River below Keno. This will reduce the water elevations on the Klamath River and Lower Klamath Lake.• Hansburry & Totten, owners of the steamboat Winema, have completed extensive repairs to the boat.• The Cronemiller family launches the evening newspaper Herald.• A second power plant was installed and a low diversion dam built on Link River.• 1906-10: Horse drawn streetcars were in use in Klamath Falls, operated by Charles Adams (?).• March 18-24, Maud Baldwin is Severly burned in her parlor: one of her hands, back and neck.• Baldwin Building opens as a hardware store and later is converted into a hotel.• Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug act.• Cabins, water tower, and private telephone are put in at Pelican Bay Lodge.• Congress passes the Hepburn Act to regulate national railroads.• Jesse Kirk died at the time he was energetically crusading for Klamath Agency reform. He wed Emma Ball and had four sons, Clayton, Seldon, Jesse Lee and Frank.• 1906-07: Mrs. Leonora Gunston was a “field matron” at Yainax Agency, a widow she had two children, Eleanor, 10, (Mrs. E.R. Erickson) and Gordon, 14.• Robert Spink was Assistant Superintendent under Mr. Chalcraft at Chemama when he decided to leave the Indian Service and start a mercantile store at the Klamath Agency.• Tom Barley was Chief of Indian Police at Yainax Agency. Miss Rollette was a teacher at Yainax and Miss Kallihan was in charge of the employee messhall.• U.S. Government canal in Klamath Falls costs $4,500,000.• June or July, first automobile arrives in Klamath Falls. It was shipped by rail from Portland to Ager and driven over Topsy Grade by H.E. Peltz.• July, regular mail service begins between Fort Klamath And Crater Lake.• A Klamath Republican reporter wrote this about Merrill, “Merrill now has two general merchandise stores stocked with everything the citizen can wish for his home, one furniture store where the home can be furnished from top to bottom at prices that compare favorably with those of the metropolitan cities, three well equipped hotels doing an excellent business – so much so that they are not sufficient for the needs of the town an up-to-date restaurant building is now being fitted up with lodging rooms in connection, two cigar and confectionery stores, two blacksmith shops, one drug store, one butcher shop, the only creamery in the county, two livery barns and a big feed barn under course of construction, four saloons, bank, doctor, newspaper, very large and fine opera house, harness shop, shoe repair shop, millinery store, flouring mill of fifty barrel daily capacity, a real estate firm and is represented by most of the leading fraternal societies as well as churches. A large capacity brick yard was recently established and a large brick bank building is to be constructed.”• Marion H. Wampler homesteads Coons Point near Rocky Point, The home is named Woodbine and sits at the western end of Stidham Creek.• August 7, Cyclone from Williamson River blows steamboat Winema over off of eagle Ridge. One deck is removed because the steamboat is top heavy.• August 23, railway north from California reaches Dunsmuir.• 2,500 acres drained at Caledonia Marsh and converted to farmland.• The dredge “Klamath Queen” is brought over land to Upper Klamath Lake.• Ice merchants in Klamath Falls receive complaints of algae in the ice cut from the lake.• December 3, McCloud River Lumber Company incorporates including people from Cloquet, Minnesota.• December 5, S.O. Johnson marries Katherine Harrigan.

1907• April or May 22, first water delivered through governmental canal from Upper Klamath Lake to Lower Klamath Lake.• First gas powered launch on lake Wocus is owned by Kendall.• April 12, the launch Buena Vista sails up Wood River to George Loosely’s house. The Buena Vista was built by Pete Perry at a cost of $3,000 and had a twenty horse-power gas engine.• April 15, Kendall sells Pelican Bay Lodge to Colonel W.H. Holabird of the Klamath Development Company.• Herbert Fleishhacker becomes manager of the London, Paris and American Bank in San Francisco.• The railroad arrives in Midland, prompting construction of livestock corrals. Midland becomes the second largest shipping point in Oregon until 1924.• E.H. Harriman visits Pelican Bay Lodge.• A group of local business men incorporated the Lakeside Land Company. They purchased 6,500 acres of land, much of which was under receding Tule Lake. 140 acres were set aside for the townsite that would become Malin.• Salmon were no longer able to swim up into the Sprague and Sycan Rivers to spawn due to dams being built on Lower Klamath and no fish ladders.• 1907-08: A group of Financiers and Stockbrokers from Montgomery Street in San Francisco are introduced to Spring Creek and return year after year.• J. Scott Taylor creates the first Klamath Falls daily newspaper, the morning Express.• The Klamath Reservation receives telephone lines built under the supervision of Indian Service employee, clark Terry who moved from reservation to reservation.• Long Lake Lumber Company opens the first local box factory.• 1907-08: An executive of the Hill Railroad appeared at Yainax Agency in the first automobile seen there. He was on an inspection tour of the surveying crews and their progress in establishing prospective right of ways for their railroad to be built in the near future.• The California and Northeastern Railway agreed to build a railroad embankment across the north end of Lower Klamath Lake to double as a levee. This would give the Project the ability to divert spring runoff that would flow south into Lower Klamath Lake.• Secretary of the Interior Garfield visits Klamath Falls.• Fall, C.S. Moore withdrew from the Klamath Falls Light and water and with his brother R.S. Moore begins building a hydroelectric power plant.• October 27, Pelican post office closes. (Rocky Point)• E.H. Harriman controls ten railroads.

1908• President Theodore Roosevelt creates nation’s first wildlife refuge for waterfowl, 53,600 acres, the Klamath Lake Reservation – now called Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.• A temporary dam is built at Fourmile Lake for irrigation diversion.• Keno Canal completed.• Captain Nosler built his “castle” on the east side of Upper Klamath Lake.• Captain Nosler is contracted by Parker and taylor, of Forth Klamath, to build the Mazama, a 50′ x 12′ boat for Wood River trade. It is designed to have two 12 horse-power engines and twin propellers, the first of its kind on Upper klamath Lake.• John Muir, invited by E.H. Harriman to visit Pelican Bay Lodge, works on The Story of My Boyhood and Youth.• February, Hansbury and Totton dissolve partnership in steamboat Winema.• March, the Long Lake Lumber Company mill at Keno is destroyed by fire• March 3, C.J. Buck established the first known U.S. Forest Service Supervisor’s office in Medford. It was known as office of the Forest Supervisor of the Cascade ( Mazama) National Forest.• April, Houston’s opera House shows the first movie in Klamath Falls, Fleet in Frisco• Stone Jetty for the launch Buena Vista begins construction near what is now Pelican Marina.• May, J.M. McIntire opens the first auto stage, running from Dorris, California to Klamath Falls.• June, Bonanza Creamery receives $700 for butter shipped to Sacramento.• July 29, the steamboat Mazama makes trip up Wood River to the Weed bridge.• August 25, E.H. Harriman and other railroad men meet at pelican Bay Lodge to discuss plans for west coast railroads.• 40,000 gallons of huckleberries are harvested on Huckleberry Mountain just west of Crater Lake National Park.• S.O. Johnson leaves McCloud River Lumber Company.• Link River is used for log driving up to 1912.• Excavation for the Clear Lake Dam begins. Construction begins on the Lost River Diversion Dam and Lost River Diversion Channel in Klamath County, Oregon.• September 4, E.H. Harriman’s party leaves Klamath Falls.• November 18, Public Notice #1 announces the opening of public land for reclamation homestead entry.• December, Wells-Fargo Company begins free express delivery service.

1909
• January 21, Jack Hall and Riley Previer attempted holdup of Klamath County Bank. They made off with $3,500 in cash and gold before being quickly caught.• Proponents of Wood River widening estimate 6300 tourists will visit Crater Lake national Park, and one to four million pounds of freight will be hauled to Fort Klamath yearly.• About 165 reservations were made on a special train to bring eastern colonists to Oregon.• First steamboat goes up Crystal Creek, at the time there are nine steamboats operated on Upper Klamath Lake.• Regular mail service by boat to the top of Upper Klamath Lake.• Judge Wilson goes to Washington D.C. on behalf of two young Indian seeking education on the east coast.• February, Mrs. Emily Humphrey refits G.W. White residence on Fourth Street, site of the present day Claremont Hotel, and opens the first Klamath Falls hospital.• First Klamath Falls’ sewer bonds.• Captain Wickstrom starts sand business for Klamath Falls’ construction projects.• Dan and John Griffith build Eagle Ridge Tavern.• A new school proposal was to be build on the west side of Klamath Falls as opposed to the northeast side. The vote was 86 for and 65 against the pmeasure, the largest vote ever cast in a school election to that date.• April 15, new moving picture machine purchased by Mr. Houston arrives in Klamath falls. It is an Edison Projecting Renetiscope Improved Exhibition Model equipped with automatic fire-proof magazine.• Merrill was second only to Klamath Falls in population with 300 people. Wheat had been the principal crop in the Tule Lake Basin and Merrill was now known as “Flour City. Besides the flour mill, Merrill had electricity, two hotels, school, bank, creamery, shingle mill, three churches, the Merrill-Weekly Record and hopes of growing to 1,000 residents.• May 6, Railroad arrivers in Klamath Falls.• May 18, Odessa passes into the hands of Colonel Holabird, working as an agent for Southern Pacific, and the resort is closed to the public.• May 20, last trip of the steamboat Klamath on Klamath River carries excursionists to greet first train entering Klamath Falls.• May 20, Southern Pacific engine #2251 is the first train to arrive in Klamath Fall sand is welcomed by 1200 local residents.• Marion Wampler opens public landing at Woodbine on Stidham Creek.• June, six million board feet of lumber moves down Wood River.• July, S.O. Johnson invests in and becomes president of Klamath Development Company and Hot Springs Company.• July 20, Eagle Ridge Tavern opens.• The Mazama, a small steamboat, begins running from Klamath Falls to Fort Klamath.• Scouts from the Czech Colonization Club in Nebraska surveyed western federal irrigation projects. They decided the Klamath Project was the best location for a new Czech Colony. Malin was named after a Bohemia farming community.• The Long Lake Lumber Company establishes the first “large” sawmill on Upper Klamath Lake.• County purchases road outfit equipment.• Robert Claude Spink opens the first Spink’s Camp on Spring Creek.• The first carload of automobiles arrive in Klamath Falls. George R. Hurns has three Overlands shipped from Portland for Shallock and Daggett, Charles graves and himself.• Arvid Ed Hakanson arrives in Rocky Point.• In July and August many workers left for higher wages in the harvest fields. 100 Bulgarians joined the work force in August. In busy months 200 men and 60 horses worked building the Clear Lake Dam.• August 12, Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors tour Upper Klamath Lake.• August 13, Averill Harriman and party arrive in Klamath Falls.• August, D. M. Griffith is elected to the First National Bank’s Board of Directors.• September 30, 65 Bohemian Families settled Malin.• Thousands of garter snakes on Klamath Falls’ boardwalks.• Two outstanding gas launches make daily runs with freight, mail and passengers are the Curlew and Spray operated by Calkins and Hamilton.• October, the newly formed Pioneer Association announced president O.A. Stearns, vice-president O.C. Applegate and secretary Emma Cogswell.• October 14, cement blocks were placed at the corners and at each entrance of Crater Lake National Park. Iron posts every half-mile along the perimeter completed the survey and boundaries for the Park.• November, Klamath Falls Light and Power Company installs the first electric meters.• December, Western Union begins service in Klamath Falls.